Roles and Responsibilities
Reporting to the Principal Investigator (PI) and with support from the Research Assistant, the Lead Researcher will be responsible for the following specific activities:
Operations:
Assist the PI to develop, update and operationalise the work plan to ensure that the Maintains programme delivers on its objectives
As per the Maintains Quality Assurance plan, the Lead Researcher is responsible to assist the PI in quality assuring all activities related to Kenya and Uganda.
Ensure compliance with national and international ethics and safeguarding standards and protocols.
Mainstream gender and social inclusion throughout research design and reporting

Delivery:
Support the PI to develop a research protocol for each study.
Oversee day to day delivery of the programme
Have a good understanding of the DFID client contract and support the PI to deliver all obligations on time, to cost and to quality
Close coordination and management of Research Project risks and ensure key programme (financial, security, delivery and operational) risks are captured and escalated to the PI and actioned accordingly
Working with the PI, oversee the delivery of the core key performance indicators (KPIs), milestones and deliverables and advise where remediation and/or additional resources are required
Maintain positive relationships with DFID Kenya and Uganda and other stakeholders, particularly government officials, as well as officials from other donors, UN agencies, World Bank, partners, universities and other knowledge providers, and the broader development and humanitarian communities
Ensuring regular reporting and open lines of communication with DFID Kenya and Uganda and other key stakeholders, soliciting their feedback and responding to issues raised.
Support the PI to update work plans and deliverables and ensure quality implementation of the MEL framework, especially on monthly and quarterly reporting.
Apply professional expertise at all stages of the project, specifically in design of research tools, analysis of data and interpretation of results.
Support PI to provide a strategic overview of the work, including leading annual reflection workshops at country level to review progress and provide an opportunity to stand back and consider the broader impact and success of the work to date, discuss emerging findings and their relevance to DFID, reflect on lessons learned, identify opportunities to use an experiential learning approach to implement findings in programming, review the following year’s work plan and adapt approaches if necessary.
Other project specific responsibilities, as required by the PI.
Team management
Manage a research project team in country that can deliver Maintains objectives.
Manage the ongoing relationship with subcontractors, partners and consultants in the country, to ensure quality of delivery, completion of deliverables, gender and social inclusion as per the Terms of Reference, and completion and timely submission of monthly progress reporting
Work with the PI to establish clear roles and responsibilities within the team and put communications procedures in place so that particular challenges or proposed changes are communicated quickly and effectively;
Provide strong performance management – develop a reporting structure to allow regular check ins with partners at key stages of delivery, as outlined in the work plan and deliverable schedule.
Financial management
Develop and manage a country budget; monitor spending and ensure delivery to agreed budget, with ability to report on budget variances, and suggest revisions as required to the PI.
Understand DFID financial reporting requirements and ensure all reports are submitted with quarterly reports in a timely manner
Complete quarterly budget monitoring and forecasting with support from project administrators
Security
Ensure the programme is compliant with DFID and OPM Security policies and procedures
Ensure the project team is in compliance with the Security and Duty of Care plan
Ensure project security risks are well understood and monitored and that all project team members are briefed, understand and comply with OPM and DFID requirements

Expertise and Experience Required
An advanced degree in health, nutrition, sociology, governance, health systems strengthening or equivalent.
Extensive (more than 10 years) knowledge and good understanding of health and nutrition basic service provision, system strengthening and/or disaster risk reduction, disaster response & recovery, resilience building. Preferably with experience of managing and strengthening health and nutrition services in fragile areas of East Africa.
Experience in managing research projects and studies, including design and use of both qualitative and quantitative data collection tools and data analysis. Preferably with experience of delivering research projects in fragile areas of East Africa.
Experience in undertaking technical reviews and analysis around systems performance and adaptation including lesson learning using a diversity of approaches.
Clear understanding of development partners thinking on development and resilience programming in Kenya and Uganda and beyond.
Good understanding of tools and techniques for gender and social inclusion in social research
Good report writing skills.
Experience facilitating workshops and learning forums and writing concise and action-oriented reports.
Start Date
As soon as possible

Method of Application
Interested and qualified candidates are requested to submit a covering letter, CV and names of 3 referees via email to info@whatworks.co.ke by close of business, 20th September 2019.